Life

Sign up for our newsletter

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Paleontology

    Fossil reveals terror bird’s power

    Bones of a new terror bird confirm the creatures used their beaks to hatchet their prey but also raise questions about what drove the birds extinct.

    By
  2. Paleontology

    Tyrannosaurs fought and ate each other

    Evidence from a tyrannosaur skull and jaw fossils add to the argument that the ancient reptiles fought and weren’t above scavenging their own.

    By
  3. Genetics

    Contagious cancer found in clams

    A soft-shell clam disease is just the third example of a contagious cancer.

    By
  4. Animals

    Tiny sea turtles are swimmers, not drifters

    Young green and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles moved in different directions than instruments set adrift in the sea, which shows the animals were swimming.

    By
  5. Genetics

    Mummies tell tuberculosis tales from the crypt

    Hungarian mummies contracted multiple strains of tuberculosis at the same time, researchers find.

    By
  6. Animals

    Dealing with droughts, museums going digital and more reader feedback

    Readers share their experiences with dry weather in the U.S., discuss how humans mentally sort quantities and more.

    By
  7. Life

    It’s true: Butterfly spots can mimic scary eyes

    Contrary to recent studies, the old notion that butterfly wing eyespots evoke predator eyes may not be so old-fashioned after all.

    By
  8. Genetics

    Anti-inflammation genes linked to longer lives

    Inflammation-dampening genes fight oxidants and promote longer life spans.

    By
  9. Health & Medicine

    Mutation regions mapped on genes that cause breast and ovarian cancer

    An analysis of mutated BRCA genes could someday be used for personalized medicine in the fight against breast and ovarian cancer.

    By
  10. Paleontology

    Brontosaurus deserves its name, after all

    Brontosaurus belongs in a genus separate from Apatosaurus, a new study proposes.

    By
  11. Neuroscience

    Brains may be wired to count calories, make healthy choices

    Fruit flies appear to make memories of the calories in the food they eat, an observation that may have implications for weight control in humans.

    By
  12. Animals

    Distinct voices fill the fish soundscape at night

    Researchers find that fish sound frequencies overlap more during the day and are more distinct at night.

    By